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A Friday night around here: Pickles and Creating

To me, making it to the end of a week is worth celebrating!

I've had so many different schedules over the last two years-cleaning schedules, laundry schedules, exercise schedules (well, sort of). It seems to be a revolving door of schedules around here! Lately I've been focusing on laundry on Mondays and Tuesdays, cleaning on Wednesdays and Thursdays (after the girls are in bed), and then by Friday I'm ready to do something fun.

Cleaning is not my fun. I love the feel of a clean house but don't get a thrill from the sound of the mop brushing across the floor. In fact, I'm usually writing a blog post or random writing thoughts in my head WHILE I'm cleaning. But, my first duty (even above crafts) is my house and my family. So I gladly clean.

One Friday night recently I thought I'd take some inspiration from my friend Naomi. She's a creative soul like myself and had given me the tiniest painted rock. It had layers of paint on it and said "shine on". Gorgeous little rock! It makes me smile every time I see it. I'd looked for some smooth rocks in our driveway and in the creek and found some to paint. And boy did I paint!

Mine didn't end up looking quite like I wanted. The paint almost seemed too thick and gloppy. But, you never know until you experiment. I'll have to try again soon, perhaps with a different kind of paint. (any suggestions?)

I also worked on my smash journal a little more, trying this and that. Lately I've been trying to learn different techniques, other than just sticking magazine pages down. Which is a find place to start by the way, if you're not used to journaling! There is almost nothing that relaxes me more than being in my craft room, puttering around. Moving from one creative book to another, colored pencils or paint nearby, ready to grab. Trying this and that. Relaxing, breathing. Creating, making.

Brett is a creative soul as well, whether he knows it or not. His creativity just usually shows up in different places than mine. In the kitchen for example, he can mix and match, toss a bit of all the right things together and come up with magic. (sounds like my friends Naomi and her mama Shannon-MAGIC in the kitchen I tell ya!) This is not my gifted area, and I'm okay with that.

So while I was puttering away in the craft room, Brett was busy slicing and dicing. Mixing and boiling, concocting beautiful jars of pickles from ordinary garden cucumbers.

He used a packet of spices from the produce section. Afterall-we don't always have to reinvent the wheel to reach perfection do we? These pickles are delicious. They are oh, so tangy and salty. Juicy and a little crisp. Fresh. Anna Ruth eats them like candy!